Internet retailing is one of the fast-growing business sectors in the UK, and this
sector is currently entering a more stable development stage. In this stage, the issue
of business strategy and performance measurement, often neglected during the
dotcom era, is gaining in importance. Although various studies have been done, the
investigation of this issue is limited. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating
performance measurement and business strategy of Internet retailing business, and their significance in enhancing business performance. A mail questionnaire was
used in a survey of UK Internet retailers. The questionnaire contained variables of
performance indicators, use of performance measurement, strategic orientation,
businessp erformance, and business profile. The survey produced 252 responses of
small-and-medium-sized internet retailers, defined as having less than £10 million of
annual online sales turnover. By factor analysis, strategic orientation can be treated
as having two dimensions:( 1) conservativeness, and (2) aggressiveness; business performance, two: (1) financial, and (2) operational; and performance measurement, one: the number of performance indicators measured. The findings show that UK
Internet retailers are likely to concentrate their performance measurement more on
financial, market-sales, and web-related indicators rather than customer and process.
After controlling for variations of business size, the empirical results reveal that (1)
more conservative retailers are likely to measure more performance indicators, (2)
retailers using more performance indicators are likely to have better operational
performance, and (3) less aggressiveness retailers tend to be associated with better
financial performance. This study has provided evidence that strategic orientation is associated with the financial aspect of business performance, and performance
measurement with the operational aspect of business performance. The results
provide useful insights for Internet retailing managers, especially concerning the
importance of performance measurement, and the choice of strategic orientation.
More importantly, this study opens up possibilities for further study of performance measurement and businesss strategy of internet retailing business

Description:

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.